At Mattapoisett’s Town Meeting and Special Town Meeting, voters will be asked to approve spending to continue reducing the town’s retirement liability, to continue capital improvements for the town and to purchase new properties.

Town Meeting is May 9 at Old Rochester Regional High School auditorium at 6:30 p.m.

On Sunday, residents got an overview of the agenda at an information session held by the League of Women Voters at the Mattapoisett Library. (To read about the candidates, click here.)

In a video, Town Administrator Mike Gagne and Town Moderator Jack Ecklund reviewed each of the 29 items on the Annual Town Meeting warrant. There are also three items on the Special Town Meeting Warrant.

Among the items discussed was an article that will add $429,821 to a trust setup to fund the multi-million dollar liability for retirement benefits. Called Other Post Employment Benefits or OPEB, the town has consistently appropriated money to this fund for eight years, but this year the appropriation includes extra funds to go towards the Old Rochester Regional OPEB liability. Currently, no town has any reserves for the junior high and high school.

Another item that will be up for a vote is whether to spend $406,000 for capital improvements from a fund already set aside for that purpose. The money includes $77,000 to increase security at Mattapoisett schools, where Gagne said “certain deficiencies were found.” Other improvements include $43,000 for a new police cruiser, $40,000 for upgrades to the Highway Department’s building and $15,200 for new infrared heat detector cameras for the Fire Department.

The road improvement plan enters Phase 6 at a cost of half a million dollars for work on the lower section of Barstow Street and all of Cannon and Pearl streets. The funds must be borrowed but will not increase taxes as it will replace other debt being paid off. This will appear at Town Meeting and as a ballot question at the annual election on May 17.

“We recast it so you will not see a bump in the taxation impact,” said Gagne.

Town Meeting will also vote on the $500,000 acquisition of the former Holy Ghost Grounds on Park Street. The eight-acre lot owned by the YMCA is mostly open space and abuts the proposed bike path. The town proposes to use Community Preservation Act funds to pay for a portion of the property.

Another parcel of land up for purchase by the town is adjacent to the police station. Gagne said the land would be a good site for a new town hall and fire station in the future.

Boaters may be pleased to hear that one of three items on the Special Town Meeting agenda is for new floats for Town Wharf. The $15,000 needed for two dinghy floats and will come from the enterprise fund for the waterfront.

A new bylaw that was being proposed to limit the withdrawal of water from most waterways using a tank has been removed from the agenda as the Water and Sewer Commission looks into policies set by other towns.

This bylaw was the result of numerous complaints over landscapers’ drawing water from the Mattapoisett River, namely Yard Boss.

Watch the Town Meeting review here.